The End of Everything
"The End of Everything" is the fifth episode of the fifth season of AMC's Fear The Walking Dead. It is the fifty-eighth episode of the series overall. It premiered on June 30, 2019. It was written by Andrew Chambliss & Ian Goldberg and directed by Michael Satrazemis. Plot Althea chases a story with dogged determination, putting the mission, and her life, in danger. Synopsis In the rain, a tied up Althea is carried by the CRM soldier. She wakes up and notices they nearby spreading powder on the corpse of the armored walker before lighting it on fire. Althea grabs her bag and runs through the woods. She ultimately falls down a hill where she gets her camera out of the bag before continuing her sprint. She quickly gets surrounded by walkers and is saved by the stranger, who then knocks her to the ground. Althea knocks the helmet off the soldier revealing a woman who demands the camera. The next morning, Althea finds herself tied to the passenger seat in an old car. She calls out to a nearby walker, grabs the barbed wire attached to it, and uses it to get free. She slams the walker's head in with the door and leaves. Nearby, she discovers a helicopter parked in the field Althea tries radioing Morgan and Alicia but a man radios back calling for "Ground 17." Suddenly, the woman appears and holds her at gunpoint, instructing her to get out. She tells the person on the radio that the lead was killed in action. "I can be inbound within 72 hours," she says, pointing out she has to get gas before delivering the payload. The man pauses and promises to send a reclamation team. The woman then demands Al take her to the tape. Al agrees but only if she gets her story. The woman agrees but says they need to find fuel. They pack supplies and head out to a fuel drop to get gas for the helicopter. On the road, Althea questions her on her background, rationalizing their stories will be all that's left after they're gone. Suddenly, walkers tumble down the hill and the woman instructs Al to stay inside, but she refuses. The woman gives her a bite-proof jacket and then takes care of the walkers. A second rockslide hits their car and tips it over. Al grabs her camera as a walker emerges from the rubble and tries to bite her, but the jacket saves her. The woman finds a tape in Althea's bag called "The Bog #7" and watches it. In it, Althea reports that the National Guard and the Army are shooting at each other, and then apologizes to Jesse and says she should have stayed. Althea explains to the woman that her brother died and she risked her life for the tape because it’s all she had left of him. The woman tells Al she should be afraid of the people in black uniforms. "We are a force who are not living for ourselves or for now. You have your stories, already making every day the past. We have the future," she says ominously. Althea and the woman continue on their journey to retrieve gas. They ultimately post up for the night and talk about their common lives before the fall. The woman reveals she killed her partner because she was doing her job. "I do think stories matter, some things just matter more to me," she says. The next day, the two scale a mountain with rock-climbing equipment. They encounter an undead climber and the woman nearly falls to her death. She repositions as Althea kills the walker and maneuvers around it. The two eventually reach the top and lay down. The woman reveals her partner, Beckett, used to be her friend and together they would fetch supplies to purify water around the power plant, but her partner got spooked by the undead and she had to kill him. She takes out a key and said it belonged to a cabin her partner liked, but she doesn't need it anymore. She tosses it off the cliff and reveals she might have to kill Al for operational security. Althea tackles the woman and takes her rifle, saying she needs it for her own security. She then threatens to leave with the climbing equipment and supplies without her so the woman finally agrees to her interview. That night, the woman reveals she's from a community but won't reveal its name or location that's focused on rebuilding society for the future. She says if she doesn't show her where the tape is then there might not be a future to tell their stories in. The woman pulls out a beer and says she wishes she met Althea before this. They ultimately bond over a beer. "Everything's so ugly nowadays. This is nice," Althea says tearing up. In the morning, the woman has her gun back and wakes up Althea to get moving. They head off for the tape which Althea put on one of the dead. The woman uses gunpowder and a match to get rid of the tape when Althea hands it to her. "The tape was only part of the story," the woman tells her. She then makes Althea turn around and puts a gun to the back of her head. Althea hands her the tape with her brother on it, saying she hopes that he can live on. "I want you to live. Don't chase this story. Do not try to find me. I hope you get back to your friends and that you can all get home somehow," the woman says, deciding not to kill her. She reveals her name is Isabelle and she's from Indiana. She says Al's the prettiest thing she's seen in the apocalypse and then kisses her. Shortly after, they go their separate ways. Isabelle puts down the two canisters of gas and kills three walkers on the road, returns to her helicopter, fuels it up, and turns it on. She radios that she's ready to return, and the voice says they've called off the reclamation team. She stares at Al’s tape and flies away. Meanwhile, Althea watches the helicopter take off before using the radio to reach out to Morgan. A while later, Morgan and Alicia reunite with Althea in the woods. She lies and says she got attacked by walkers and don’t know where the helicopter went. The kids walk up and Morgan says he'll explain on the way. Before they leave, Al reveals her last name is Szewczyk-Przygocki, and she thought they should know that. They smile and walk off together. Deaths *Jesse Szewczyk-Przygocki (Confirmed Fate) *2 unnamed rock climbers (Alive, Confirmed Fate; Zombified) Trivia *Last appearance (in FTWD continuity) of CRM. (Unknown) *Last appearance of Isabelle. (Unknown) *Last appearance of Beckett. (Corpse) *Al's last name is revealed to be Szewczyk-Przygocki. * This episode reveals that Althea is part of the LGBT community. ** Althea is the first female lesbian character (or bisexual) introduced in Fear The Walking Dead, being the second, Isabelle. ** Althea and Isabelle are, respectively, the fourth and fifth LGBT character introduced in the series Fear The Walking Dead. Victor Strand is the first, Thomas Abigail is the second and Cole is the third. *The episode begins shortly after "Here to Help" ended. It covers around 72 hours of time between the end of "Here to Help" and the end of "Skidmark". **The scene where Isabelle puts down some walkers near Max and Annie in "Skidmark" is seen again from her point of view. *It's revealed that the reason Morgan's group had to use the plane to get in and need to fly out is because none of the roads in the area are passable due to massive traffic jams created by people trying to get out. *In "Good Out Here", Al becomes panicked when seeing her tape locker broken open and inside are boxes of tapes labeled "The Bog" going from 1 to 32. "The Bog #7" is revealed to be the story she was recording when her brother died and features the National Guard and Army shooting at each other. Goofs/Errors *There was no reason for the two women to stop the car to kill the walkers. The road was not blocked and there was only one walker when they decided to kill the walker by hand. If they weren't already stopped they would have just kept driving. Likewise, they could have proceeded slowly without damaging their vehicle. At this point in the apocalypse, the living should be risk averse and only be killing walkers when necessary since every kill, no matter how easy, involves danger and increases your risk of being bitten. Category:Episodes Category:TV Episodes Category:Fear The Walking Dead Category:Season 5 (Fear the Walking Dead)